


time may change me

by emilyenrose



Category: Yuri!!! on Ice (Anime)
Genre: AU, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-01-09
Updated: 2017-01-09
Packaged: 2018-09-16 02:14:18
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,156
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9269165
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/emilyenrose/pseuds/emilyenrose
Summary: Yuuri and Victor met by chance as children.





	

**Author's Note:**

> This story was inspired by [this comic](http://aguas-ucia.tumblr.com/post/155603861623/au-where-kid-victor-went-to-a-junior-competition) by the amazingly talented [aguas-ucia.](https://aguas-ucia.tumblr.com)

**7 and 11**

Victor cries on the plane the whole way home. The air stewardess gives him a sweet. The other passengers give Yakov dirty looks. Victor tries to calm down, he really does, but Yuuri was so _cute_ , and he liked skating so _much_ , and he _burst into tears_ when Victor left and now Victor will _never see him again_.

“Make that child be quiet,” snaps Lilia in the end. Victor is barely even making noise, he is just sniffling into Yakov’s sleeve.

“If he’s a skater, Vitya, you’ll see him at competitions,” says Yakov.

“What if he doesn’t compete?” says Victor tearfully.

“Then you’d better just win,” says Yakov. “That way he’ll know who you are anyway.” He cuffs the back of Victor’s head. Victor knows he’s not really serious about it, but it makes him feel better anyway.

* * *

**8 and 12**

Victor sees a lady who looks familiar for some reason in the stands, but it’s not until he spots the chubby-faced boy out on the ice that he thinks _Yuuri’s mom!_ and then _Yuuri!_

“Hi!” he yells, waving frantically the minute he’s on the ice. “Hi, Yuuri!”

Yuuri falls over. Victor goes and picks him up. Yuuri stares at him with big eyes. He hasn’t grown at all. Victor is a whole three inches taller. “Hi!” says Victor again. “It’s me!” Yuuri must remember him. Victor remembers Yuuri, and Victor forgets practically everything.

Of course Yuuri does remember him. He gives Victor a dimpled smile. He’s still so cute! “Hello,” he says in English, and then something in Japanese.

“Skate?” says Victor.

“Yes!” says Yuuri.

It’s more fun than any other kind of skating. They see who can go the fastest (Victor) and who can hold the silliest pose on one leg the longest (also Victor) and who’s better at spinning (Victor too, of course, but Yuuri’s really good for someone so little!) Yuuri is red in the face and talks cheerily to Victor in Japanese. Victor has no idea what he’s saying, so he answers in Russian, saying whatever comes into his head. Then he shows Yuuri the jumps he’s been learning, and Yuuri is gratifyingly impressed in a way that requires no translation.

“You should compete,” Victor says urgently when Yuuri has to go. “Then we can skate together again. Compete, Yuuri!”

Yuuri and his mom both look pleased but confused. Victor tries to remember the English, but they don’t seem to understand that either. And then they’re going, and Yakov is waving Victor over with an expression that means no arguing. Victor isn’t going to be in Japan again for _ages_ , maybe _ever_. It’s so, so sad. It’s the saddest thing that has ever happened.

* * *

**10 and 14**

Victor wins Junior Worlds.

He hasn’t thought about little Yuuri in a long time.

* * *

**13 and 17**

Victor doesn’t compete in the Juniors anymore, even though he’s still eligible, because it’s boring and not difficult enough; but Yakov said he had to come. He thinks he’s supposed to be supporting some of his rinkmates, or possibly just being nice to sponsors? Yakov definitely told him but Victor wasn’t listening.

Some of the little skaters are cute. Victor waves to the golden-headed moppet whom he knows he’s spoken to before, though he’s completely forgotten the name. He’s obviously one of the lucky ones who’s being treated nicely by puberty. Victor was lucky too: his growth spurt hit at the very start of the off-season and he’d made sense of where his weight lay by the time he had to compete again. Some of the other competitors are not lucky at all. There are lots of spotty faces and awkward knock-knees around. Victor isn’t paying much attention to the rink, and he doesn't recognise the chubby thirteen-year-old who flubs all his jumps. Someone in their first year competing here isn’t a serious contender anyway, unless it’s someone like Victor, who took silver.

He sneaks back into the rink later, getting away with it because the girl who locked up thought he was pretty, and finds that it’s not empty. There’s Chubby, practicing figures. How did he get in? Oh well. Victor feels vaguely bad about interrupting, but he has real practice to do.

Then Chubby starts skating a program and Victor pauses just before he gets on the ice, delighted, because that’s _his_ program. His first junior gold and his first world record! It’s like seeing an old friend somewhere unexpected. Chubby is skating it really well, too; Victor can almost hear the music. He’s surprised. Someone who can skate like this should have been on the podium, or at least _near_ it.

Chubby turns and stumbles to a halt when he sees Victor. He has big brown eyes behind the glasses and cute chubby cheeks and whoops, Victor just recognised him. “Yuuri!” he cries, and waves. “Hi, Yuuri!” He skates over. “It’s me! You’re competing! I didn’t know! Do you speak English better yet?”

“I speak some,” says Yuuri carefully. He has a strong accent. He’s still so short! Victor has nearly a foot on him.

“You were skating my program!” Victor says.

Yuuri turns bright red and mumbles something unintelligible.

“It looked really nice!” says Victor. “Skate it with me?”

“No, I -

“Come on, Yuuri,” says Victor. “Skate?”

Yuuri hesitates, and then nods.

It’s been a few years but Victor’s body remembers the movements he spent a whole season drumming into it. They skate the first half together in perfect time to an invisible soundless orchestra. Yuuri really is very good, very musical. He’s obviously got ballet training. But in the end Victor can’t resist upping the difficulty, finally putting in the quad combination that always belonged at the start of the second half no matter what Yakov said, taking advantage of the extra power his body has now. It’s not the practice he should be doing, but it’s _fun_.

Yuuri doesn’t try to keep up. He stops and watches. The way the lights are, Victor can’t see his expression behind the shine off his glasses. But he’s used to being watched and he likes it. He finishes with a flourish, and gives Yuuri the bow he normally saves for the judges. “How was that?” he asks.

“Really pretty,” says Yuuri, and then turns redder than ever.

Victor giggles. He gets this all the time but it’s funny to think of it coming from little Yuuri. “Oh, Yuuri, you’re all grown up!” he says. He honestly just means it as friendly teasing.

But Yuuri stiffens.

“I’m sorry for interrupting your practice time,” he says.

“What?” says Victor.

“Good luck competing this year!” says Yuuri very fast, and then he leaves so quickly it’s almost like he evaporated.

“Yuuri!” says Victor, but it’s no use. He’s gone already.

In the grand scheme of things it’s more important that Victor actually does that practice than that he goes chasing after Yuuri right now. And when he is on the ice the rest of the world doesn’t seem to matter very much anyway. So he doesn’t follow.

* * *

**15 and 19, 16 and 20, 17 and 21, 18 and 22**

Yuuri is surprisingly difficult to corner at competitions. Victor doesn’t try that hard. He’s not a cute kid to have fun with anymore. He doesn’t say hi to Victor, and Victor is very busy clawing his way up from ‘the one to watch’ to ‘serious contender’ to ‘undisputed champion’.

At twenty-two he adds the quad flip to his roster and takes gold in every single competition he skates in.

“How does it feel?” a sports journalist asks him.

“Ask me again next year,” says Victor. “I’ll have thought of something clever to say by then!”

* * *

**19 and 23**

“Oh, _hello_ ,” purrs Chris. Victor has made a point of knowing Chris’s name after sharing the podium with him so often. It’s important to take your fellow skaters seriously. Also he’s fun and friendly and makes Victor feel like quite a restrained and sober individual by comparison, and he lets Victor practice speaking French with him.

“Who is your victim, Chris?” Victor asks.

“Over there,” says Chris. “Look who finally grew out of his ugly duckling phase. About _time_ , gorgeous. I’ll be right back.”

Victor looks over, and blinks, and - wow, _amazing_. Is that really little Yuuri?

Yes, it is. The chubbiness has been pared back to just a flattering hint of girlish softness around his face, and his shoulders have filled out, and he isn’t wearing the glasses Victor had come to assume were attached to him at the ears. His dark eyes have a distant look. His expression only flickers slightly when Chris is suddenly leaning over him, not-very-casually posing in a way that stretches his shirt across his pecs.

Victor would love to hear the conversation that follows, because he’s never seen anyone get rid of Chris so fast.

“Brrr,” says Chris when he comes back, shivering theatrically, glancing back to see if Yuuri is paying attention. He isn’t. It’s perfectly obvious that he’s already forgotten Chris was ever there. “And they call _you_ an ice prince.”

Victor gestures dismissively. “You probably said something stupid. Yuuri is very friendly really.”

“What?” says Chris. “No he’s not. Have you never competed with him? He barely spoke to me for two years in Juniors and I still don’t know why.”

“Did you call him an ugly duckling?”

“It was Juniors,” says Chris. “We were all ugly ducklings. Except you, of course. Since when are you friendly with Yuuri Katsuki, Victor? I’ve never seen you speak to him.”

Victor blinks but - oh, it actually has been quite a long time since he’s spoken to Yuuri. How strange. When was the last time? Victor says hi when he sees him, of course, but even when they’re both at the same competitions he somehow doesn’t see him that often. But they’re obviously still friends. They must be friends. Victor cried about Yuuri’s cute face for an entire plane journey when he was eleven, possibly materially contributing to his coach’s divorce, so how can they not be friends?

Chris doesn’t seem convinced. Victor had better prove it. He goes to say hello. “Hi, Yuuri!”

Yuuri looks up. “Hi, Victor,” he says quietly. He’s got an American accent now. When did he get an American accent? His shoulders are stiff, and they weren’t a second ago. He doesn’t say anything else. Victor has to carry the conversation all by himself, and Yuuri nods or says ‘okay’ and looks ever so slightly past him rather than at him, as if he finds it very uncomfortable to look at Victor’s face.

Victor keeps trying for a good five minutes, which is longer than he would ever bother with anyone else, and then, defeated, comes up with, “Well, anyway, bye bye! Good luck!”

“You too,” says Yuuri.

“See what I mean?” says Chris when Victor slinks back to him. “Well, we tried. Talk about a shame. Just _look_ at him.”

Victor is looking, and it suddenly seems like a real shame that Yuuri Katsuki apparently doesn’t like him very much. He wonders what happened to that cute little skater who so obviously thought Victor was wonderful. It had been lovely. When did he vanish, and how did Victor miss it?

Oh well. There’s more important things. There’s _skating_.

* * *

**20 and 24, 21 and 25, 22 and 26**

There’s skating.

This is very important to you, Victor tells himself when he gets his fourth Worlds gold. It’s funny, he never used to have to tell himself that.

* * *

**23 and 27**

Yuuri Katsuki gets drunk at the Grand Prix banquet and Victor, fresh off a victory carried on a free skate that he knows is mostly about loneliness, suddenly rediscovers what it feels like to have fun.

It’s like seeing an old friend somewhere unexpected. It’s like finding out who can go fastest and spin the longest and jump the best without the judges to make it dull. It’s like hearing music properly again.

Yuuri flings his arms around Victor at the end of the evening, wet-eyed and drunk and still missing half his suit, and he does not at that moment look like the cool handsome young man whom Victor has occasionally let himself glance at over the years.

He’s still so _cute_ , though.

Victor’s not a complete fool. He knows Yuuri is drunk that night. But maybe this year is the year he puts some effort into cornering Yuuri at competitions, and doesn’t let him say ‘hmm’ and ‘okay’ and ‘good luck’ like Victor is nothing to him. Maybe this is the year he tries, and maybe this is the year there’s something more important than skating.

Except Yuuri isn’t _at_ any of the competitions.

Victor doesn’t know what to do. He waits for a sign.

* * *

**24 and 28**

It turns out there’s nothing in the world that’s more fun than being in love.

**Author's Note:**

> I'm on tumblr at [emilyenrose](http://emilyenrose.tumblr.com).


End file.
